If you’ve been here before, you won’t be surprised to know that I have the lightest option, palette #1.

Here’s the info on this palette:

This multi-use cream palette is ideal for color correcting discoloration, concealing dark under-eye circles and spot imperfections, or, just use it to highlight and sculpt your features.Camouflage cream provides full coverage with an easy to blend, lightweight and creamy texture. Each palette contains 5 shade combinations with an assortment of color correctors and concealers. This creamy formula is buildable so you can layer multiple shades to customize your make up result. Available in 5 shade harmonies to target every skin tone, choose your perfect palette for a flawless, even complexion.

I wish I remembered which YouTuber or article introduced me to this palette. It had to have been at least 5 years ago, and it immediately shot to holy grail status.

I am lucky enough to not have to deal with blemishes that often, but when I do, this palette is my go-to for concealing.

Mostly I tap on a tiny bit of the green first, to offset the redness, and then I take one of the darker skin tones and tap that over the top. (I almost exclusively use my middle or ring finger to apply this product.) This product is quite thick and a light hand is needed, or you will quickly overdo it. I then follow up with my regular application of liquid foundation with a beautyblender, I am careful to not wipe away the concealer when I am applying foundation. I simply dab and blend the foundation with the patented bouncing of the beautyblender.

I set as usual with the Coty Airspun, and sometimes take a smaller detail brush and apply a bit of extra setting powder over the problem areas and let it bake for a while before brushing away the excess.

I would note that I’ve never used this product like a traditional concealer. I have learned from the gurus that using an undereye concealer to cover blemishes is almost always a bad idea, because you are generally adding light to your undereye area and you don’t want to brighten an area with a blemish! The colors in this palette are nowhere near as light as my foundation, but it works because I’m able to cover it. Essentially, what this product does is to help cancel out whatever issue you are having. The camouflage name is fitting.

I have also tapped the green over my cheek redness in the past, but I did not have a great experience with how my foundation looked over this product having been used on a much larger area of my face. I think spot concealing is where the Make Up For Ever Camouflage Cream Palette really shines.

At $42, this is the most money I’ve ever spent on concealer. However, for when I need it, there is no substitute for it’s incredible coverage and staying power.

Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Kiss Cupacu Lip Butter. Another lip product, I know, but another great one. I got this in a Sol de Janeiro gift set, and it feels great on my lips and also smells divine. If you like other Sol de Janeiro products, you will love this too, because this is like Bum Bum Cream for your lips.

Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve. If you have to face unfortunate hand wash in your daily life, this is an incredible product to keep on you. I use a tiny bit and it moisturizes without being overly greasy. It does have the classic Kiehl’s scent, but somehow it is not as strong as it is in the other cream products from Kiehl’s.

The Erin Condren yearly planner. I am on my second year of using this planner. I was previously a Filofax user, but I struggled with the size being too small, and after watching some YouTube videos, I bought an Erin Condren planner last year. I had never been so consistent in using a planner, so I ordered one for 2019 as well!

Things I track in my planner include:

holidays

birthdays

vacations

blog content – I use the monthly view to see when I’m posting content and what kinds of content I’m creating.

doctor appointments

what I wear – this is new for 2019, as I try and identify the items in my closet that I actually wear.

other – I realized at the beginning of using this planner that it would also be an interesting artifact of each year, and so I make notes of anything that I did on a certain day that was notable.

This lighted makeup mirror from Amazon was one of the best purchases I made in 2018. You can charge it with a USB cord, it folds flat for travel, and for anyone like me who uses a lighted makeup mirror at home, it is the best $25 bucks you will spend! My makeup was always weird when I was traveling and it was definitely because I didn’t have the same view. The only downside to this is that it doesn’t have a magnified side, but I got over that quickly. You can adjust the brightness, and it shuts off automatically after 30 minutes. If you struggle with the mirrors when you aren’t at home, definitely pick this up.

So I quickly head to Amazon, find that they have it in Ivory, and purchase it right away. A few days later, my new foundation arrived and I tried it during my next makeup application.

My first impressions were great. The application and coverage were nice, and I liked the outcome. I find myself not always wanting 100% coverage these days, and this let my skin show through a bit, which was well-received. I then wore it again mixed with the Fenty Pro Filt’r Foundation, as I still struggle with the Fenty foundation being a bit dry on my skin. Everything was fine, or so I thought.

Cut to a regular day at the office, but a day in which I’m wearing a v-neck top. It turns out that the major downside of using a lighted mirror to apply my makeup is that I don’t get a wider look at myself before I leave my house in the morning. It turns out that this Vitalist Healthy Elixir foundation, in the color Ivory, is not anything close to the Ivory shade I have been using for years, made by the same company! Having not done a side-by-side test, I had no idea.

These are both Ivory. How disappointing. I am surprised that a company as large as CoverGirl would not keep consistency in the colors of their skin products. Especially when you are naming them! These products do have numbers that aren’t the same, but the format of the numbers is very different, so I’m not sure that seeing the different numbers but the same shade name would have made me think twice.

Once I noticed the error, I went back online to look further into the issue, and found a LOT of product reviews mentioning the same issues that I had, that the Ivory shade was not light enough, and that there is not a lighter option in this particular product. So it’s not just an issue for me, but many customers who wanted it to work, and like me, seem to really enjoy the product itself.

Ultimately, I do think that companies that manufacture makeup should commit to matching shades to their names, across all products. I’ll take responsibility for not attempting to find out some more about this product before buying it, but it still seems ridiculous.

In follow-up to my previous post about the Year in Review email from Lyft, I’m back now with a Tory Burch email to wish me a happy new year. Unlike the Lyft email, this is not personalized to me, but still feels like a personal note from the founder and namesake, Tory Burch.

The only issue I take with this messaging is that it is extremely top-line and vague. I would almost prefer more information in this email with some links to more information about their philanthropic projects, as I’m sure they’ve created content around those efforts. I do really like the message of “here’s to a year of travel, color, and giving back,” as it feels extremely on-brand for Tory Burch, in aesthetic and company reputation.

I’m including the whole email below, but everything under the happy new year message is fairly standard e-commerce email content. I do feel that it takes away from the overall message of the email to include such basic content after such a specific message at the top. Ultimately, I would have preferred that this email be paired with more content about the Tory Burch Foundation, and for them to have left the shopping links for next time.

It may be too late to say “happy new year,” but it is not too late to talk about new year content.

Today I wanted to share the email I received from Lyft, with a recap of my use of their service in 2018. I’ve seen these from a number of brands, but the content of this one really struck the perfect balance of personalized information about my own use of this service and company information. Included here is information on how to better use Lyft, what Lyft is up to in terms of their philanthropic efforts, where Lyft service is available, interspersed with specific information about my stats for 2018.

I don’t get a lot of emails from Lyft that aren’t related to specific usage of their service, but I opened this one as it totally played into me wanting to know more about me. The personalization of this email was super effective at pulling me in, and in the meantime, taught me a bit more about Lyft as a company.

What I do notice and appreciate is that nothing here is about money spent on this service. Why bring you down with a reminder of how much money you spent? December is generally a spendy month for many people, so a reminder about having spent $X over the course of the year on rides isn’t going to help anyone. Good move on Lyft’s part.

I would like to see other companies create this kind of recap of my own activity with their service or store. I am slightly concerned that for some customers, it would backfire into letting them know that they might be shopping a bit too much, or taking Lyfts a bit too much, but the avoidance of including dollar amounts is a key point.

It’s late December, which means it is time to stock up on cute holiday decor for next year at wonderfully-reduced prices. Pier 1 Imports always has a great selection of beautiful and sometimes very quirky holiday items, but the prices they start at tend to be quite high for something you will likely only see for a few weeks each year.

Now is the perfect time to shop their holiday clearance event, with up to 60% off on holiday items! I was extra excited to see that they have fall/Halloween items still available as well.

Here are some of my favorite items included in the sale. Happy shopping!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links.

2018 has flown by (and yet also dragged somehow), and the holiday season is upon us. I was recently asked to provide some gift ideas, and of course, it triggered the idea to get on my own holiday wishlist posts for the blog.

First up, beauty items! (All of the links are in the widget at the bottom.)

I’ve got some products in here that are tried and true.

The Peter Thomas Roth retinol serum is a favorite, it goes on under moisturizer before bed.

Alien by Thierry Mugler is a top 5 fragrance for me, one that I don’t wear nearly enough as my husband is not the biggest fan. (This is a real struggle, because I mostly do beauty things for me and not anyone else, but I also don’t want him to smell me and think “eww.”) It smells delicious though.

MAC Haute and Naughty mascara is one that I haven’t used in a while, and actually miss—the two options for applicators is genius!

Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium is another top 5 fragrance, and no one in my household objects to it, so it’s a winner all around.

Kiehl’s Creme de Corps, a classic choice. It’s effective, the scent is mild and unmistakably Kiehl’s, and I will continue to restock it.

The rest of the products are things I haven’t tried yet but would love to.

Lancome Advanced Genifique serum. I actually did try a sample of this and it was wonderful. It’s quite expensive though, which has always stopped me from being able to press the purchase button.

Dior Forever foundation. Just another foundation to try with high expectations that will hopefully deliver.

Tom Ford Creme Color for Eye. (The color Spice is my favorite.) I’ve seen YouTubers put one of these and nothing else on their eyelids and look amazing, so I expect that paying $46 for a single cream eyeshadow will do the same. Seriously though, I haven’t purchased one of these because I can generally buy a whole eyeshadow palette for around the same price.

La Mer Body Cream and Lip Balm. I only found out recently that Sephora won’t give you a La Mer sample. I think they used to, so I’m guessing that they were giving out too many? I really wish that La Mer would invest in creating tiny samples for purchase, because I would love to try their products, but the price of admission is so high that it isn’t likely. If I put the cream on and it changes my life, I might be more willing to splurge in the future. The Lip Balm is $60, and I am curious as to what is in there that makes it worth $60.

Charlotte Tilbury, The Rock Chick Look Set. A tiny bit of savings from buying the items individually, you get all of the pieces for $230. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about Charlotte Tilbury products, and there’s no way I am not going to choose the one that will give me black eyeliner and dark shadow for a smoky eye, paired with a nude lip option. I’m into it.